Vladimir Putinin the state of the nation address to the Russian Federal Assembly, which lasted one hour and 45 minutes, before both houses of parliament, attacks the West and makes an announcement: the Russian Federation suspends its participation in the New Start Treaty, the new treaty on the reduction of nuclear weapons still in force with the US.
“We are suspending the treaty, but we are not withdrawing from it,” Putin underlined, who also called on the Defense Ministry and Rosatom to be ready for nuclear weapons tests.
“We will never use them first, but if the United States does we have to be ready. No one must be under any illusions: strategic parity must not be broken,” she specified.
What the Start treaty provides
The new START treaty (New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) on the limitation of nuclear weapons, the application of which Vladimir Putin said today that Russia intends to suspend, was signed in Prague on April 8, 2010 by then US presidents, Barack Obama , and Russian, Dmitri Medvedev.
The treaty entered into force in February 2011 and is expected to last until February 2026 (it was extended in 2021). The New START treaty replaced a previous treaty (Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on the reductions of the strategic offensive, SORT) which would have expired in 2012 anyway, but above all it replaced the START I treaty, which expired in December 2009 while the START II and START III treaties never entered into force.
What is important to understand is that the treaty does not limit the number of nuclear warheads that can be stored but those that can be deployed. The two countries can deploy (ready for immediate launch) a maximum of 1550 nuclear warheads, an effective decrease of about two-thirds compared to the limits contained in the START I treaty. The number of warheads deployed, in any case, can exceed 1550 units (although not by much due to practical limits) as within the limits imposed in the treaty only bombers are counted but the latter can carry more than one warhead.
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